2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe

Now Playing: Upsized and downrevved for the enthusiast of tomorrow.

For the past six years, we’ve felt a little like Estragon and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot. So many hours have been lost debating whether the previous-gen Honda Civic Si produced enough power to hold its head above water in the pocket-rocket pond. Eventually, this existential controversy morphed into a kind of recreation, with Si devotees screeching fiery epithets from the bleachers. Well, finally, Generation Nine is upon us. “We’re saved!” shouted Beckett’s protagonists whenever they suspected Godot might momentarily appear.

Here’s a sad fact: Godot never showed. And whether the Si is “saved” likewise remains unclear. Let us review recent history.

Our first encounter with the previous Si came late in calendar year 2005, when we pitted it against a Volkswagen GTI. The Honda lost. In 2009, we inserted an Si into a seven-car comparo, where it finished fifth, gasping and sweating. We weren’t surprised. The Si’s engine—2.0 liters, 197 horsepower, 139 pound-feet of torque—relegated it to least-powerful status in the whole segment. It certainly didn’t possess the grits to fend off, say, a 263-hp Mazdaspeed 3 Grand Touring or a 265-hp Subaru Impreza WRX. What’s more, accessing the Si’s horses has always required the spinning of the crank and cams to a fine fare-thee-well. The VTEC didn’t swap cam profiles until 6000 rpm, and it was thereafter vital to rely on every single rev right up to the colossal eight-grand cutoff.

Of course, Si purists—and trust us, they are legion—smugly insisted that the little howler-monkey engine comprised much of the car’s charm. Yet in the same breath, they’d also confess the coppery taste of humiliation whenever a WRX achieved 60 mph 2.0 seconds in front of them, fast becoming a gnat on the horizon.

Now comes Honda’s solution for the ninth-gen Si, a solution both simple and a little surprising, given the rumors of a turbo. Out goes the 2.0-liter engine, in comes the naturally aspirated 2.4-liter unit that sees simultaneous duty in the Acura TSX. The result is an unnoticeable 4-hp gain, but torque is up 22 percent—peaking at 4400 rpm instead of 6100 rpm—and that’s a difference you can feel. While they were at it, the engineers paired the engine to the TSX’s delightful six-speed transaxle. But is that enough?

Well, sort of. At the track, the Si nailed 60 mph in 6.3 seconds versus the previous 6.7, and it proved a half-second quicker in our 5-to-60-mph rolling start. Turn off the traction control, and you can now shred rubber for 15 feet, followed by a Rottweiler bark as you bang into second. An improvement, for sure, but it’s still shy of the accelerative thrust of five turbocharged competitors, including the Speed 3, the WRX, and even the GTI, which has a similarly meager 200 horses but can nonetheless summon 60 mph in 6.1 seconds.

On the other hand, the larger engine ushers in welcome perks. The mechanical thrash of the previous powerplant, for instance, is now largely MIA, and gear noise is likewise reduced, with all three of our sound-level tests confirming the fact. (Still, road-borne noise and tread roar remain issues that Honda must address.) Equally important, the number of shifts required for ’round-town cruising seems subjectively halved. In traffic, the Si is perfectly content relying on first, third, and fifth. And by eschewing a turbo, the Si’s mileage—now up to an observed 26 mpg—is best described as a charming achievement.

Yes, the Si is smokin hot. Sixty mph now arrives in 6.3 seconds, 0.4 second quicker than the previous Si. At the drag strip, however, the car will continue to eat the exhaust of its turbocharged competitors.

Yes, yes, 900 top-end revs have been lost. But the car now pulls with at least vague enthusiasm just after step-off. In fact, our only serious beef with the new engine is its considerable overrun when the throttle is suddenly dropped. Among other things, that makes for very little initial engine braking, and the revs sometimes take a couple of seconds to return to idle. Most drivers won’t complain, but it’s a behavior that lends the drivetrain a titch of laziness that has historically been anathema to Honda-think.

As with the previous-gen Si, this is among the most-neutral-handling front-drivers on the planet. Around our 15-mile public-road loop in southern Ohio, we could provoke only the most minor of nibbling understeer—and that was at speeds approaching Fear Factor Nine—with the rear tires faithfully following whatever paths had been established by the fronts. No rotation, no drifts, no drama. Body motions were exquisitely controlled, with the ride revealing the stiff springs and dampers only over high-frequency imperfections, primarily expansion joints and broken pavement.

At around-town speeds, the Si’s steering tends to feel artificial, as if it were the outcome of some sort of electrical/mechanical calculus that never precisely balanced. At least it’s light. As speed rises, fortunately, it firms up nicely and also becomes livelier. There’s no bump steer, no nervousness, and interstate tracking is peerless. The brakes are fade-free, and the pedal is firm and informative.

Moreover, the light, fluid shifter—as good as any that Honda has ever produced—allows the driver to summon alternate rev ranges with the flick of two fingers, abetted by a new lightweight clutch with simply seamless takeup. Faced with slow hairpins, the limited-slip differential carefully apportions power so that the inside front wheel never scrabbles. The thinly cushioned seats hold you firmly in place, and the dead pedal is perfectly sited. With lateral grip rising from 0.87 g to 0.90 g, the Si just dances and sings in the hills. This 2864-pound coupe is perfectly balanced, agile, poised, ever willing, a car that is easy to drive. Real fast comes real quickly.

The only obvious failure here is the unimproved interior. There are crass plastic trim bits on the steering wheel and around the HVAC controls. The Civic’s trademark minivan-sized windshield leans over a mini­van-sized dash, a vast plain of cut-lines, textures, and colors. The bunk-bed layout for the IP is okay, but the garish LCD gauges are right out of a RadioShack in Akron. The mouse-fur headliner suffers from the mange, and there’s a lumpy, wrinkled collar of felt that surrounds the steering column, shouting to one and all, “Yessir, that’s right, I actually am the cheapest bit of flotsam in the universe!” Note to Honda: Check out the Ford Focus’s interior.

The new Si—manual six-speed only—comes in both sedan and coupe forms. The coupe starts at $22,955, the sedan opens at $23,155, and both top out at $24,655. The only options are navigation, XM radio, and (exclusive to the coupe) summer tires—17-inch Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2s, as fitted on our test car. (Fun driving tip: Demand that your spouse call you “Pilot Exalto.”) If you’ve got a calculator handy, you’ll perhaps already know that a starter Si coupe is more than $1500 cheaper than either a GTI or a Speed 3.

This latest Si is more sophisticated than its forebear, although it has been somewhat cruelly left to play David to the turbocharged Goliaths. As of now, it offers a better ride, produces less noise, and is faster in both a straight line and through the most diabolical off-camber, double-apex turns that Ohio’s deranged civil engineers could conjure. It is surely less raw than its predecessor, a trait that many Si purists—including our own revered Tony Quiroga and Dan Pund—lament. Until they commit to a three-day, 800-mile road trip, two-thirds of which skates over frost-heaved interstates. No longer is the Si a one-trick pony. At speed it’s a serial killer, yet during commutes and city errands it’s a near-soothing mental-health counselor with practicality and a price that make it easy to justify.

And with that, as always, please feel free to express your unalloyed hatred.